Cryptonite Women – Part 1

Posted on May 06, 2019

By Natalie Lord

The crypto industry has taken the world by storm and seen many believers skyrocket to exponential success almost overnight. But by and large, most of the key leaders and shapers of the industry are men. Think Brian Armstrong, Changpeng Zhao and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. When it comes to women, only 5% are involved in the blockchain space, and this includes female founders, developers and investors. That compares to statistics showing that 20% of women have jobs in the tech industry, and that 17.7% of all start-ups have a female founder.

We look at 5 of the 10 most influential women in the sector.

Cherie Aimée

Cherie Aimee is a near-death survivor,
brand influencer, international speaker and VIP Partner/Contributor for
Influencive. Aimee is the Vice President of ShipChain, a company using
blockchain technology to bring transparency to the transportation and logistics
industry. Cherie uses her experience in digital marketing to grow the brand and
it’s becoming one of the fastest growing Telegram ICO groups in the industry.

Kathleen Breitman

Kathleen Breitman released the white paper
for Tezos in 2016 and is now CEO of the company. Tezos is a blockchain-based
smart contract platform with an on-chain governance mechanism to coordinate and
push upgrades to its network. It has raised US$232 million to date.

Breitman is recognised as one of the
leading figures in the cryptocurrency arena through her numerous achievements
and accolades, although her journey hasn’t been an easy one. She’s seen
lawsuits against her and her husband, against the company and the Tezos
Foundation, which was set up to promote the use of the Tezos blockchain.

Toni Lane Casserly

Toni Lane Casserly is one of the most
recognisable, high-profile names in the cryptocurrency space. Casserly is the
Co-Founder of online publication, CoinTelegraph. She is a blockchain expert,
respected public speaker and advisor on multiple successful projects including
Tether and AidCoin. CoinTelegraph is an influential tool in shaping the
psychological perception of the market and in providing financial news and
information from the digital sphere.

Tavonia Evans

Tavonia Evans worked in the tech industry
for almost 20 years before launching her own cryptocurrency $Guap. Evans is a
single Mother of eight and a self-confessed data geek. She’s a big proponent of
women in the crypto space. “The crypto market is highly competitive at the
moment with people fighting for influence,” she says. “The men I’ve observed
vying for influence are not very tech-savvy at all. Women in tech, however,
tend to overachieve, study more, and expand their expertise legitimately just
so they can get in this space.”

Connie Gallippi

It happened in the bathroom at a Bitcoin
conference in California in 2013. A shot of creativity hit Gallippi and she
decided that the Bitcoin community needed a philanthropic organisation and that
she was going to run it.

“Nothing like that’s ever happened to me
before. It was like this vision that came to me.” The vision came to be
BitGive. Bitgive is currently the place to go to if you own Bitcoin and want to
donate a proportion of your money to charity.

With BitGive set up and running, Gallippi had
another vision. She launched a new platform on the BitGive website called
GiveTrack. GiveTrack leverages Bitcoin technology to hold charities accountable
for the donations they receive. Because Bitcoin records all transactions
publically, GiveTrack can use that ledger to show people who make donations
exactly where and how their money is being used.